The Doubting Thomas Perspective
By: Miriam Brown
Does the Creationism vs Theory of Evolution debate matter? Many Christians don’t think so. Since it is not a “Salvation Issue” it is deemed unimportant. Or since the ultimate salvation denominator involves the heart being pricked by scripture, talking about the scientific evidence of an earth created in 6 days is made to seem unnecessary.
Yes, ultimately, a rebellious heart is a rebellious heart no matter what is presented to it. But is the discussion of a young earth, and the scientific evidence for it, a useless enterprise? I contend that not only is it useful, it is necessary to the journey of many people to reach the point of respecting God’s word as truth and His authority as the Almighty God. Do all people need this kind of evidence on their journey toward salvation? No. But to those of us who are like Thomas, the answer may be an emphatic YES.
“Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, ‘Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.’ ” John 20:24-25
Thomas needed physical evidence in order to be convinced that Jesus had resurrected from the dead. Even after having witnessed the miracles Jesus performed before the crucifixion, he openly admits that unless he sees and touches Jesus’ wounds, he will NEVER believe that Jesus has risen from the dead. Is this refusal to believe the reflection of a rebellious heart? Thomas had followed Jesus from the beginning (Mark 3:18) and even after having made this statement, he continues to fellowship with the disciples. If he had a rebellious heart, it stands to reason that he would have either betrayed Jesus, as Judas did, or lost interest somewhere along the way. After all, it was not an easy thing to give up one’s life to follow a man who was constantly being threatened by the authorities-- and then ultimately killed. Why would he continue to stay with the disciples unless he wanted to believe that what they saw (Jesus resurrected) was true? He had a heart that WANTED to believe, but couldn’t without the physical evidence. Many people have this very same personality. They want to believe, but “worldly wisdom” causes them to doubt. They need more than the “Story” of the Bible, as the world refers to it, but how do they cross over the bridge to believing in the TRUTH of the Bible?
Consider what Paul says at the beginning of Romans:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ ” Romans 1:16-17
Here we see that salvation can only come to those who are first willing to believe in the gospel and put their faith in it. Thomas had the will, but needed the physical evidence to bridge the gap. So where does that leave the “Thomas” of the modern era? What physical evidence do we have now?
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” Romans 1:18-20
These verses reveal that we do in fact have that physical evidence! Paul tells us that even when dishonest hearts suppress the truth of the gospel, God has shown us His powerful and divine existence through the creation and the things He made in it. Paul says these created things are plainly seen and clearly perceived—so much so that people have no excuse for not believing in God. So what happened along the way? Why does the world believe that faith and science (the study of those physical things) are incompatible?
“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” Romans 1:21-25
Somewhere along the way men became so prideful that they stopped honoring God and started to honor themselves. They stopped giving God the glory for the created world and starting giving glory to the creation itself. They began to worship the images of things created, which had no power in of themselves. So ultimately, they were simply deciding to believe whatever seemed right to themselves. (see Proverbs 16:25)
“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” Romans 1:28-32
Where did this lead them? It led them to more and more sin until they lost all respect for the ways of God and even began to encourage others to sin. Why does this matter? It matters because “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” Romans 6:23.
Do you see the progression?
Salvation comes through faith, which begins with believing the gospel is true.
The world tries to suppress the truth, but cannot because of God’s physical creation.
The world then stops acknowledging God entirely and gives all the glory to the creation itself.
Once the world thinks it has eliminated God, it no longer feels bound by righteousness.
Sin and death proliferates.
How does this relate to the importance of finding and teaching the scientific evidence that God created the world just as He said He did in Genesis vs. teaching what the “consensus” says is the scientific evidence that the world basically appeared out of nothing and took far longer than God said it did? Well, we see from Romans that when humanity fails to give glory to God for His creation, it leads to men becoming debased and utterly corrupt. Is it any wonder that the Nazis used the Theory of Evolution and its constructs like “Survival of the Fittest” to justify their “superior race” idea and the following mass murder? Eugenics and abortion go hand in hand with such thinking because if the world refuses to acknowledge God and His righteousness, why would they care if such things were wrong? Why value human life if they do not recognize that humans were made by and in the image of God?
Yet, hope remains! If you reverse the progression, you see that if a sinful man will acknowledge that God did in fact create the world, he may then be able to recognize God’s power, divine nature and righteousness, which in turn would lead him to belief in the gospel, and the faith which leads to salvation!
There will be those who easily acknowledge that God created the world, but there will be those who are deeply entrenched in “worldly knowledge” who need the kind of physical evidence that Thomas did in order to bring them into belief. It was 8 days after his statement that Jesus appears and speaks directly to Thomas:
“Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe."Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John 20:26-31
Jesus says that those who believe without having to see are blessed—and indeed they are! But you also see that Jesus did not deny Thomas the physical evidence that he needed to believe, nor did He condemn Thomas. We have physical evidence today—God has left it in His creation! The world will try to suppress the scientific evidence that supports a young earth—if it did not suppress it, it would have to recognize the possibility that there is a God and that people will be held accountable for their sins. However, the evidence is out there if we will look for it. And it’s important that we DO look for it and be ready to share it because it is part of the journey for some of the modern day “Thomas” hearts. I leave you with this verse:
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” Proverbs 18:21
The power of the tongue isn’t in the individual words, but in the ideas those words convey and the thought processes that follow.
Again I say, those who need no physical evidence, blessed are you! Those who do, it has been given and there are resources to help you find it—but you must seek them out, for the world suppresses and ridicules them to its own destruction.